Find the Right Cutting Board

Essential for food prep, a cutting board can pose risks if you use it for raw meat and then for another food without properly washing it between uses. We evaluated 31 boards of plastic, wood, Corian, glass, bamboo, cork, and paper composite to see how they held up to chopping and cleaning.

Plastic boards are your best bet  comfortable to cut on and dishwasher-safe (use the "sanitize" cycle after cutting meat; if your dishwasher doesn't have one, bleach the board). The Oxo Good Grips Over-the-Sink Cutting Board ($30) topped our test. No counter is required (though it can be used on one). Great basic versions: the Oxo Good Grips Cutting Boards ($9 to $30) and the Progressive Cutting Board ($13). At $13 for two boards, the Farberware 2-Piece Poly Cutting Board Set is a deal, but developed more grooves than the others.

A few words on wood. Attractive and a pleasure to work with, wooden boards should be hand-washed to better preserve their finish and shape, even if the manufacturer claims otherwise  one "dishwasher-safe" board fell to pieces within 28 cycles. To sanitize after cutting raw meat, bleach. J.K. Adams Co. Pro-Classic ($23 to $54.50) proved resistant to odors, breakage, and warping. It moved when we chopped, but placing a damp towel underneath kept it stable (a good tip for any cutting board that shifts).

Didn't make the cut. While glass cleaned up very well and showed no wear, we found it so slippery it was downright dangerous to use. Corian stained easily, wasn't that pleasant to cut on, and is pricey. We didn't like composites and cork as cutting surfaces, finding the former too hard and the latter too soft. Bamboo looked stained and faded after our tests.

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